How a baker gets by the first night shifts

When I graduated from pastry school, the diploma said pastry chef but I didn’t feel like one. I felt like a fraud. I had learned all the theory, had trained some of my skills, but wasn’t sure I was ready to take on the real world. So instead of venturing into starting my own business, like almost all my colleagues did, I decided to start my career from the bottom and applied to be an assistant baker at the local bakery.

As an assistant, I was to take on the night shift to bake bread that would be later distributed to cafes, delis, and supermarkets. I believe it took me about three weeks to get my sleep pattern on track. Until then, I was in desperate need of an energy booster and, mistake number one, I would drink energy drink after energy drink to keep me awake.

Let me tell you from experience that energy drinks are the worst you can do to your health. There is no way your body can process all that excessive caffeine and turn it into something good. My hands would shake, I would feel irritated and I would always be in the worst of moods. I was a wreck and I was neither having fun or learning anything.

After the first week was done, my manager told me to tone down the caffeine or find another job. He has been receiving complaints from colleagues who were not happy to work with me. He gave me a pack of organic Chaga tea and advised me to try that instead. I was so skeptical about a wild Chaga mushroom tea doing the trick that it showed on my face. So much so that he emphasized this wasn’t a request.

One of the things I learned that first week, apart from the obvious organic Chaga benefits in restoring my energy levels without harming my health, is that when you’re at your first job you learn everything that is not remotely linked to your actual skills but is as valuable.